Saudi Arabia Bans BlackBerrys in All of Country
Saudi Arabi has put in place a nationwide ban on BlackBerry smartphones.
Designed by Canada-based Research In Motion, BlackBerrys are a popular choice of cell phone among many business people. However, approximately 700,000 Saudi Arabian BlackBerry owners are being forced to look to other cell phone makers for mobile solutions as the country is banning RIM devices.
Citing regulatory requirements, the Saudi Arabian Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) yesterday requested that all telecommunications companies stop providing service for BlackBerrys by Friday.
The news follows a similar announcement from the United Arab Emirates', which saw the country pledge to block email, IM, and Web browsing on BlackBerrys devices starting October 11 if it fails to reach an agreement with RIM regarding the company's encryption practices. According to CNet, UAE has complained that RIM's strict encryption between its hardware and servers violates UAE regulations and prevents it from monitoring data in the name of national security.
Responding to the UAE, RIM said it is unable "accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key."
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The US has the CIA, the Brits have MI6, Canada has RIM...
The US has the CIA, the Brits have MI6, Canada has RIM...
RIM FTW
Read this as: "It is hard for us to spy on people using this device, so we don't like it."
There is a saying used when talking about Apple's restrictive practices that seems strangely appropriate here:
"it's their sandbox..."
Good for RIM. The parasites don't need to be in everyone's business. There are other ways to find someone bent on terrorist or otherwise destructive behavior.
Wow good news... I might wanna buy a Blackberry now... im tired of beeing spied by Facebook, USA, China, ...
Proud of RIM. Let SA & UAE have IPhones
"Saudi Arabia Bans Blackberrys in All of Country"
Did anyone else read that with a Borat-voice?
"Great success!"
thats why i avoid that whole part of the world, they don't have what we sometimes take for granted here, freedom and sane leaders.
The US has the CIA, the Brits have MI6, Canada has RIM...
CSIS is the Canadian version of the CIA
It's hard to comment since I actually don't know how the encryption works.
"accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key."
If this is true then how come no other phones are being banned? How are they spying on the other smartphones? RIM can't be the only one that uses encryption at all are they?
CSIS is the Canadian version of the CIA
Too many letters, RIM fits better with CIA and MI6!
"Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home" I guess Disney got it right.Make no mistake, this wasn't done in the interest of "National Security". This was done in the interest of Islamic "morality" and maintaining the supremacy of the absolute monarchy. If they can't spy on your email, they can't be sure your following the tenets of Sharia ("Islamic Law"), nor can they be sure you aren't criticizing the King or a local religious leader.We would have long ago condemned Saudi Arabia to the axis of evil along with Iran, Korea, and Iraq (pre-war) if they didn't have so damn much delicious oil.RIM uses their own data network and their own point-to-point encryption (based on a unique key stored on the phone). Think VPN. Other smartphones connect straight to the internet, so Saudi Arabia (and anyone else controlling the ISP) could inject themselves between the phone and the network. The government can inject itself as the authentication server. I doubt anyone in Saudi Arabia ever sees a "Signed by Verisign" notice on their web browser. Every website is probably signed by the Saudi Government, because they've intercepted your communication (i.e. their servers authenticate with the outside site, your browser authenticates with their servers, so they can un-encrypt the data, process it, then re-encrypt it and send it to you using your public key). That's why its not only important to see that a site using https (or other encryption) has a valid certificate, you need to see who signed for that certificate. Who knows, your employer could be using this tactic right now to read your private, personal emails everytime you check your gmail.
korea, you are a moron!
Good luck decrypting what I text. Half the time I don't even know what it says.
"Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home" I guess Disney got it right.Make no mistake, this wasn't done in the interest of "National Security". This was done in the interest of Islamic "morality" and maintaining the supremacy of the absolute monarchy. If they can't spy on your email, they can't be sure your following the tenets of Sharia ("Islamic Law"), nor can they be sure you aren't criticizing the King or a local religious leader.We would have long ago condemned Saudi Arabia to the axis of evil along with Iran, Korea, and Iraq (pre-war) if they didn't have so damn much delicious oil.
Clearly you are quite ignorant about Islam. Their policies did not match RIMs and so they dont allow them. Same with the chinese and google. Learn about the subject before you demonstrate your stupidity.
While, I believe every country and people have the right to govern their lands as they fit, ... I mean it's been what 1000 years since the last crusade aren't we about do. No longer will we spread Christianity we will spread common sense.
If UAE and SA can't hack a black berry, then I believe they are ripe for the picking. I wonder if the CIA knows it can't hack a black berry! LOL, if I were the head of these countries and our counter intelligent team couldn't get through black berry encryption then it's time that someone gets beheaded.
I work in Saudi Arabia. And, yes, my company gave me a Blackberry.
Hey, people. It's not about Sharia. It's not about national security. It's about control.
I'm waiting for one of the geeks on here to come out and say "THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
but I degress...
"According to CNet, UAE has complained that RIM's strict encryption between its hardware and servers violates UAE regulations and prevents it from monitoring data in the name of national security."
....right...these "countries" need to monitor people for national security
The US just gets its monitoring information from Facebook and Google. Don't be so surprised...
More like they need to monitor for pictures being sent of chicks not wearing their bee keeper suits. Good for RIM for not lowering security.
Good for RIM for sticking to their guns... there is no good reason for them.
Clearly you are quite ignorant about Islam. Their policies did not match RIMs and so they dont allow them. Same with the chinese and google. Learn about the subject before you demonstrate your stupidity.
I bet your username is fitting
In RIM we trust.
Clearly you are quite ignorant about Islam. Their policies did not match RIMs and so they dont allow them. Same with the chinese and google. Learn about the subject before you demonstrate your stupidity.
Actually, I think it is you who needs to read up on Islam. Hellwig's comments were spot-on. Sharia Law is known for being particularly barbaric, and Saudia Arabia is one of the strictest Sharia Law enforcers.
This almost makes me want to play with my storm again even though I just got my incredible last week lol
"Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home" I guess Disney got it right.Make no mistake, this wasn't done in the interest of "National Security". This was done in the interest of Islamic "morality" and maintaining the supremacy of the absolute monarchy. If they can't spy on your email, they can't be sure your following the tenets of Sharia ("Islamic Law"), nor can they be sure you aren't criticizing the King or a local religious leader.We would have long ago condemned Saudi Arabia to the axis of evil along with Iran, Korea, and Iraq (pre-war) if they didn't have so damn much delicious oil.
You have to quit watching Chuck Norris movies and to start a real educational course about what is really going on in this world.
You think communist countries, like China, are dictactorial? You ain't see nothing yet!
this is why i never trust the saudis
they can rim my blackberry !
Are the Saudis worse than San Francisco, where they just renewed the law against plastic bags?